Rudram, anuvāka 11 — the Rudras by thousands, and the last line
The popular claimThousands on the earth, thousands in the air, thousands in the sky. Unstring them all.
The first anuvāka asked one Rudra to unstring his bow. The eleventh asks the same of all of them, and there are thousands.
The refrain
Sahasrāṇi sahasraśo ye rudrā adhi bhūmyām, teṣāṁ sahasrayojane'va dhanvāni tanmasi. — The Rudras who are thousands upon thousands on the earth — their bows we unstring at a thousand leagues. Ava tanmasi — we loosen, we slacken; the reciter does it, by the recitation. The verse repeats, with the second line as refrain, after each group.
The groups
Asmin mahaty arṇave'ntarikṣe bhavā adhi. — In this great ocean, the sky between, the Bhavas. The air is an ocean; the Rudras in it are called by the name Bhava.
Nīlagrīvāḥ śitikaṇṭhāḥ śarvā adhaḥ kṣamācarāḥ. — Blue-necked, white-throated, the Śarvas who move below on the earth.
Nīlagrīvāḥ śitikaṇṭhā divaṁ rudrā upaśritāḥ. — Blue-necked, white-throated, the Rudras who rest on heaven.
Ye vṛkṣeṣu saspiñjarā nīlagrīvā vilohitāḥ. — Those in the trees, grass-coloured, blue-necked, deep-red.
Ye bhūtānām adhipatayo viśikhāsaḥ kapardinaḥ. — Those who are lords of beings, with no top-knot, or with braided hair. Viśikha — Sāyaṇa: hairless; the pair with kapardin is the fifth anuvāka's shaven-and-braided again.
Ye anneṣu vividhyanti pātreṣu pibato janān. — Those who pierce men in their food, in their vessels as they drink. The Rudras in what is eaten and drunk — disease by that route.
Ye pathāṁ pathirakṣaya ailabṛdā yavyudhaḥ. — Those who are guardians of the paths, bearers of food, fighters. Ailabṛda — Sāyaṇa: carrying ila, nourishment; the readings vary.
Ye tīrthāni pracaranti sṛkāvanto niṣaṅgiṇaḥ. — Those who frequent the fords, lance-bearing, sword-belted. The eighth anuvāka's tīrtha returns, with armed Rudras at it.
Ya etāvantaś ca bhūyāṁsaś ca diśo rudrā vitasthire, teṣāṁ sahasrayojane'va dhanvāni tanmasi. — And those Rudras, as many as these and more, who have spread through the directions — their bows we unstring at a thousand leagues. The last refrain, covering whatever the list missed.
The closing obeisance
Namo rudrebhyo ye pṛthivyāṁ ye'ntarikṣe ye divi yeṣām annaṁ vāto varṣam iṣavas tebhyo daśa prācīr daśa dakṣiṇā daśa pratīcīr daśodīcīr daśordhvās tebhyo namas te no mṛḍayantu. — Obeisance to the Rudras who are on the earth, in the air, in heaven, whose arrows are food, wind and rain; to them ten eastward, ten southward, ten westward, ten northward, ten upward — to them obeisance; may they be kind to us. The arrows are named: annam, vātaḥ, varṣam — food, wind, rain. What sustains is what strikes. The ten obeisances in each of five directions are counted by the chanters with the fingers.
The last line
Te yaṁ dviṣmo yaś ca no dveṣṭi taṁ vo jambhe dadhāmi. — Whom we hate, and who hates us — him I place in your jaws. This is the final sentence of the Namakam, and it is the reason some reciters stop at te no mṛḍayantu: a curse is not what a devotional recitation wants to end on. Sāyaṇa reads it plainly; it is in the Saṁhitā; the Taittirīya text does not end without it. A page that describes the Rudram has to include it.
What the section does
The Namakam's structure closes: one Rudra asked to lower the bow (1), the one made lord of everything (2–4), the one named as every pair (5–9), the household's petition (10), and now the many — thousands, in every element, every direction — asked to lower every bow at once. The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad will answer this multiplicity a few centuries later with eko hi rudro na dvitīyāya tasthuḥ — one Rudra, they did not stand for a second — but the Yajurveda did not need the one. It had the thousands, and it unstrung them all.
What comes after
In recitation the Camakam follows — eleven anuvākas of ca me, the petition that the Namakam's propitiation earns. Each of its anuvākas has its own page in this section — Camakam, anuvāka 1 through anuvāka 11.
What this page does not say
It does not omit the last line, and it does not say the last line should be omitted; both practices exist and this page reports both. It does not say the unstringing works. It opens the eleventh anuvāka so that a listener who has heard sahasrāṇi sahasraśo as the Namakam's ending knows what the thousands are, where they are, and what is asked of them.
Source — Taittiriya Samhita 4.5.11 (Namakam, eleventh anuvaka), Krishna Yajurveda; Sayana's bhashya on the Taittiriya; Bhattabhaskara's commentary on the Rudram; Shvetashvatara Upanishad 3.2 for the "one Rudra" that answers the many
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